


Counting Stars

by blainedarling



Series: Seblaine Sunday Challenges [20]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 08:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1259857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blainedarling/pseuds/blainedarling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian couldn't stay there any longer. Maybe he's not the only one. (Warning: some mention of homophobic bullying but nothing explicit.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counting Stars

Sebastian scuffed the toe of his boot into the dirt that had tracked up at the side of the road, looking out over the desolate, seemingly endless landscape. There was a bitterly cold wind racing over the plain, unhindered by the lack of obstructions - save for Sebastian’s lean body, that it was whipping around without mercy.

 

He hated the cold, always had. It brought back memories of winter nights throughout his childhood spent cocooned in his bed, when all he’d wanted was for his mom to take five minutes out of her stream of conference calls to tuck him in. To kiss his forehead and maybe even sing him a lullaby. Just a short one.

His father - he hadn’t even wished for, so impossible, too much to hope. Although, he would only learn later why he’d really been so absent, distracted by a string of lovers. Maybe they weren’t so different after all, himself and his father. 

 

But he’d had it with his lot of lovers in Ohio. He was done with this  _fucking_  state.

 

The sound of an approaching car tore him from his thoughts - the first one to come past since he’d been out there, stomping his feet and watching his breath create little clouds of  condensation in the morning air. It was a busy road, usually. Just typical that it wouldn’t be on the day when he specifically needed the traffic. 

 

It was a beat up truck kind of thing, plenty large enough for him to justifiably stick his hand out into the road, and pray that the car would draw to a stop. He reasoned that the logical move would have been, really, to delve into his trust fund and just buy a plane ticket.

 

But plane tickets presupposed some thought of destination, of a finality. Sebastian didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know where he wanted to go, even, except for away. With hitchhiking, he could go wherever the road took him. See where he ended up, and move forth from there. 

 

And besides, if he was going to start an entirely new life for himself, a healthy bank balance seemed worth hanging on to. 

 

Perhaps a small part of it was the adventure, the chance that he could see something that would change his whole perspective on the world, or meet someone that would guide him towards where he was supposed to be going with his life. 

 

Sebastian had never really had many friends. Acquaintances, people he tolerated, people who tolerated  _him._ But no one he would really call friend.

 

“Fuck,  _yes_ ,” he mumbled as the car slowed to a stop in front of him, the dusty windscreen just showing a shadowy figure sitting behind the wheel. He stepped around to the doors, ducking his head to look in through the front seat window.

 

“Where are you headed, kid?” The man was old, gruff, a messy beard adorning his chin and eyes that sagged around the sides.   
Sebastian shrugged, hitching his bag up over his shoulder a little. “Wherever. Don’t care.”

 

The man grinned, the toothless kind, that was made less eery or intimidating by the warm glint in his eyes. “Get in,” he said, nodding towards the backseat. He turned, as if addressing someone who was back there already. “Got you a friend, little one.”

 

_Little one?_  Sebastian frowned, opening the back door, half expecting to come face to face with the man’s own child, but he could tell from his first glance at the boy that they were no relation. 

 

He slid into the seat, no sooner having shut the door than the man started up the car, zooming off down the highway. And still, the boy to his side did not speak, though his bright hazel eyes were fixed on Sebastian, flicking over his body like a nervous twitch, unable to settle.

 

Sebastian stared right back: at the way his shoulders were hunched up nearly to his ears, his face pale, his hands clenched into fists in his lap, his worn backpack at his feet. Petrified was a good word to describe the expression on the boy’s face, so tightly crammed into the other side of the car that it nearly swallowed him whole.

 

“He doesn’t talk much,” the man from the front said quietly, his gaze flickering between the two boys. His tone was gentle, concerned even. “I found him yesterday, a state over. Doing exactly what you were.”

 

Sebastian nodded slightly, turning back to the boy. He hadn’t so much as flinched at having two people so obviously talk about him, let alone tried to say anything for himself. He couldn’t help but feel almost sorry for him, in a way. He’d had his own reasons for leaving, for running. He wondered what the boy’s were.

 

He twitched the corner of his mouth up in what he hoped was a sort of reassuring smile. He wasn’t going to tell him that everything was going to be alright, that everything would work out. Because he didn’t know that and he had no right to predict a future for someone else when he couldn’t even see his own. But he did want the boy to know that, for the time being, at least, he was safe. 

 

The boy’s shoulders relaxed a little and he slowly turned his face away, leaning his forehead against the glass of the window. His breath fogged up the glass in little puffs, the reflection of his expressive eyes in the window visible to Sebastian across the car. 

 

Sebastian sighed, settling down in the seat and mirroring the boy’s actions. The best thing he could try and do right now was probably get some sleep. And that was all it took for his eyes to droop shut, letting the lull of the engine send him to sleep.

 

*

 

When Sebastian awoke, it was dark outside. He squinted, rubbing his eyes before peering out of the window, the sharp light of a sign hitting his eyes and making him blink rapidly. They weren’t moving anymore; in fact, both the man and the boy were gone, but the heat was still turned on for him, the fan buzzing feebly from the front.

 

He jumped as the other back door opened, the boy’s dark head of curls appearing in his vision. His backpack was held tightly in the fist of one hand, the other clutching a couple of brown paper bags. The smell of hot food hit his nose, making his stomach growl insistently. 

 

The boy licked his lips slowly, before clearing his throat. “I didn’t want to wake you when we stopped at the drive-through.” He held up the bags. “Hungry?”

 

They ended up sitting in the open back of the truck, the only other thing in there a stack of faded blankets and a snow shovel, as Sebastian stuffed the food into his mouth with attack. The boy had resumed his silence, after having briefly explained that the man -  _Bill_  - had gone to run some errands and would be back soon. They’d pulled up next to a motel, for safety’s sake, but would be leaving again as soon as he returned.

 

Sebastian finally stopped for a breath, letting out a satisfied groan and clutching his stomach as he fell back against the metal behind him. The boy chuckled softly, the first real smile Sebastian had seen from him. He noticed him watching him and the smile quickly dropped, a flush coating his cheeks as he drew his knees up to his chest. 

 

“Blaine,” the boy said quietly, eyeing him over the top of his knees. “My name’s Blaine.”  
“Sebastian,” the taller replied, shivering as the evening cold hit the back of his neck, sending a shudder down his spine. 

 

Blaine reached for the blanket, offering it to Sebastian. “Here,” he murmured. “It smells a bit like wet dog but it’s good for keeping off the cold, I promise.” And there again was that smile, albeit tentative, but still more than Sebastian had really expected to get out of his travel companion. 

 

Sebastian accepted it gratefully, wrapping it around his shoulders before shuffling across the space a little, the metal creaking as he did. He lifted the side of the blanket up, nodding to Blaine. “Come on, it’s okay,” he encouraged. 

 

Blaine hesitated, so Sebastian cracked a wide, lazy grin, beckoning him over.   
“They say body heat is the best form of warmth,” he teased, throwing in a wink that had Blaine’s cheeks flaring up pink all over again.

 

He still seemed a little reluctant, but eventually Blaine moved over to his side, fitting almost perfectly into the space under his arm, the blanket settling over his shoulders and around his body. 

 

“If you don’t want me to be so close to you, I can move,” Blaine said suddenly, his voice somewhat louder and sharper than it had been thus far.   
Sebastian frowned, not moving the weight of his arm from around his shoulders. “You’re fine, Blaine,” he said quietly. “Relax.”

 

But the tension that had set into Blaine’s shoulders very clearly did not relax, the boy’s body tightly coiled up next to his own. And the silence had set in once again, uneasy even in the peace of the night, with just the distant sound of cars back on the main road. 

 

“A lot of people wouldn’t want me so close. Back ho- Back there.”  
Sebastian let the weight of his words sink in, simultaneously trying to and trying  _not_  to speculate on what drove Blaine to leave. He couldn’t be any older than him, that was for sure. Younger, maybe. Fifteen, sixteen. Seventeen, like him, at a push.

 

“I’m not one of those people,” Sebastian replied firmly, before smiling a little, deciding to change track. Test the waters. “I’m not in the habit of pushing away beautiful boys.”  
A seemingly subconscious gasp left Blaine’s lips, his gaze ducking before looking up at Sebastian again. 

 

“No one’s ever called you that before, have they?” Sebastian whispered, acutely aware that they were close enough that should he lean forward, the tips of their noses would bump together. “Beautiful?” He took Blaine’s silence as a confirmation. “Well, you are.”

 

Blaine turned his face away, something unreadable in his expression, and Sebastian found himself immediately missing the warmth of his breath over his lips, and the intensity of his gaze. 

 

“I like that you can see the stars out here,” Blaine said after a moment, his tone wistful. “You never can in the city.” He cast Sebastian a glance before spreading his body to lay back against the car, keeping the blanket tucked around him as best as he could. 

 

Sebastian waited a beat before doing the same, his long legs stretching far past Blaine’s, shins bumping the other’s feet. Sebastian looked at Blaine, and Blaine looked at the stars. Sebastian watched Blaine watching the stars. 

 

What Blaine had said reminded him a little of himself, when he’d been eleven, right before his family had relocated out of Pennsylvania. Of boys who refused to go near him, refused to play with him on the swings, because they might  _catch_  what he had. Because they’d seen him put that Valentine into Jimmy’s drawer, and they  _knew_.

 

Ohio had hardened Sebastian. Made him stop fantasising for a life where everything was fair and equal. Made him stop waiting around for his childish, immature dreams to come true, and instead to just live. If you could call what he used to do living. 

 

School. Boys. Lacrosse. Boys. Alcohol. Boys. 

 

There was no spark, no excitement, and very little interest even by the time he made the decision to leave. It surprised him just how little he regretted it. Maybe it shouldn’t.

 

“Do you really think I’m beautiful?”  
Sebastian smiled softly, waiting until Blaine had turned his gaze back from the stars and onto him once more. “I do. I think the only thing that will make you more beautiful, is the day that you realise that there is nothing wrong with being exactly who you are.”

 

And it was Blaine that leaned forward, clumsily but determinedly pressing his lips to Sebastian’s, sharing a moment of heat before he pulled back. He licked his lips, as if chasing the feel of Sebastian’s, and the taller boy didn’t blame him. His hands ached to reach out for him properly, his lips pined to be back on Blaine’s. But he couldn’t push it.

 

“I think I’d quite like to kiss you again,” Blaine whispered, a little breathless, his eyes sparkling in the light from the moon.   
Sebastian grinned, rolling onto his side so he could face him properly. “Okay.”

 

Blaine hummed softly, before turning his face back to the stars, a smile playing on his lips. “I think maybe tomorrow, though.”  
“Okay,” Sebastian repeated, the disappointment that hit his gut made up for by the promise of tomorrow.

 

And what of the day after? And the day after that?

 

They fell asleep like that, Sebastian watching Blaine, Blaine watching the stars, until Bill came to wake them.  
“Sun’s rising boys, time to go.”

 

Blaine and Sebastian watched, together, as the first hints of the morning glinted behind the trees, hands searching out one another’s underneath the blanket. Sebastian’s voice was hoarse from sleep, but he pressed his face close to Blaine’s neck all the same, singing lightly under his breath.

 

_“On this new morning, with you.”_


End file.
